Use locked-in conversations to ensure specific user groups only see relevant content, regardless of how they phrase their questions to your chatbot. See:
Before you lock a conversation...
Locking a conversation significantly impacts your chatbot experience. Standard chatbot responses such as default fallbacks and replying to frequently asked questions will not work inside a locked-in conversation. We strongly recommend you consult with inGenious AI if you plan to lock a conversation.
What is a locked-in conversation?
When a user is in a locked-in conversation, the chatbot will only respond to them with content from that conversation. When they ask a question, the chatbot ignores all global inbound questions to prevent the conversation context accidentally switching.
Users in a locked-in conversation can still be handed over to live agents, and receive notifications and inactivity responses, but the chatbot's responses to questions and fallback triggers changes:
- If the user sends a response that does not match an outbound question in the passage they just received, or a conversation-level question inside the locked-in conversation, the chatbot responds with the conversation-level fallback.
- If the user sends a response that would trigger a default fallback, like an unexpected attachment fallback, the chatbot responds with the conversation-level fallback.
Like resumable conversations, locked-in conversations apply at a per-conversation level and do not impact child-conversations. If a locked-in conversation has child-conversations, those child-conversations are considered separate conversations and are not locked-in.
Locked-in conversations display a padlock next to their name in your chatbot.
When to lock a conversation
Locking a conversation should be done with caution, as it has a significant impact on your chatbot experience.
Usually when a user asks a question, if there are no outbound or conversation-level matches, the chatbot tries to match any global inbound questions in the chatbot. If there is a match, the chatbot starts that passage and (depending on the passage settings) may switch the context to that conversation.
This is useful for responding to frequently asked questions, or ensuring a user can start a specific conversation with your chatbot without having to navigate a lengthy menu of buttons.
But sometimes you want to ensure the user stays within one conversation, even if they ask questions that would normally lead them outside it.
For example, you may have a conversation for personal credit card closures that is very similar to your conversation for business credit card closures. The questions in conversations have similar intents, making it difficult to ensure the chatbot correctly differentiates between them all the time. A user in the business conversation may phrase a question that unintentionally matches a global question in the personal conversation, and the chatbot will shift the conversation to the personal card closure.
If the business conversation was locked, the chatbot would ignore the global inbound question for the personal card conversation and match the user's question to a question in the business card conversation or the conversation's fallback instead.
Locked-in conversations give you much greater control over what chatbot content the user receives, but it can greatly impact your chatbot experience while the user is in the conversation. We recommend you use this feature sparingly and consult with inGenious AI if you plan to lock a conversation.
Entering a locked-in conversation
The chatbot user can enter a locked-in conversation just like any other conversation:
- Matching a global question inside the locked-in conversation.
- An outbound question that starts a passage inside the locked-in conversation.
- A button, Quick Reply, Send Info, or Logic or other follow-on passage that starts a passage inside the locked-in conversation.
- A webview or script that starts a passage inside the locked-in conversation.
- A Business Hours response that leads to a passage inside the locked-in conversation.
- A live agent handback passage inside a locked-in conversation.
- A notification, inactivity response, or default fallback that starts a passage from a locked-in conversation.
By default, the conversation context switches to the locked-in conversation when the chatbot starts the passage, and the user is locked-in. The chatbot will ignore any global inbound questions when trying to match the user's utterances until the user leaves the locked-in conversation.
But the user will not be locked-in if the passage that the chatbot sent:
- Has Retain Previous Conversation Context enabled. The user's conversation context does not switch to the locked-in conversation, and they are not locked in.
- Has a Resuming Quick Reply, and the user presses the Resuming Quick Reply to return to their previous conversation or previous passage.
Behaviour in a locked-in conversation
Once a user is locked in a conversation, the chatbot sends your chatbot content as normal: all your buttons, scripts, Quick Replies and logic work as they normally do, and users can be handed over to live agents and receive notifications and inactivity responses as normal.
When the user types a question, the chatbot will:
- Ignore any global inbound questions, even if the global-level question is inside the locked-in conversation. Only outbound and conversation-level questions inside the locked-in conversation can be matched.
- Start the conversation fallback passage for all fallback responses such as long text or unexpected attachments. The default chatbot fallbacks will not be triggered.
- Only use Intellimem responses that have been configured for the locked-in conversation. If Intellimem is triggered but the locked-in conversation does not have an Intellimem response configured, the conversation fallback is used. The default chatbot Intellimem response will not be triggered.
When creating content for a locked-in conversation:
- Make sure that any question that you want to be matched while inside the locked-in conversation is either conversation-level or outbound.
Global inbound questions should only be used for getting the user into the locked-in conversation, they will be ignored once the user is locked in. - Make sure your conversation fallback is an appropriate response for long text, unexpected attachment, and other default fallbacks.
- If any chatbot content leads outside the locked-in conversation and you want the user to stay locked-in, make sure the passage it starts either uses a Resuming Quick Reply or Retains Previous Conversation Context.
Leaving a locked-in conversation
Once locked in a conversation, the user can leave the locked-in conversation by:
- An outbound question that starts a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
- A webview or script that starts a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
- A button, Quick Reply, Send Info, or Logic that starts a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
- A Business Hours response that leads to a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
- A handback from a live agent to a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
- A notification or inactivity response that starts a passage outside the locked-in conversation.
But the user will remain in the locked-in conversation if:
- The passage outside the locked-in conversation has a Resuming Quick Reply, and the user presses the Resuming Quick Reply to return to the locked-in conversation.
- The passage outside the locked-in conversation has Retain Previous Conversation Context enabled. The conversation context remains with the locked-in conversation, and the user is still locked in.
Note: If the user triggers the long text response fallback immediately after this passage, the default long response fallback is sent instead of the conversation fallback. If the default long response fallback is not in the locked-in conversation, the user is no longer locked in once they've received the fallback passage. This exception only applies to the long text response fallback, and not to other default fallbacks.
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